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WHSMS Lone Working Procedure

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Section 1 - Governing Policy

(1) This Procedure is governed by the Work, Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy.

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Section 2 - Application

(2) This Procedure applies to lone working by staff within campuses, staff in locations away from campuses, labour hire, and contractors managed by ACU.

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Section 3 - Lone Working by Staff

Staff within Campuses

(3) Lone working by staff within an ACU campus shall be managed using the Safezone App. The Safezone App has been configured to operate geographically within each campus boundary.

(4) Whenever staff plan to work alone on a campus, outside of the hours between 8am to 6pm, they should also:

  1. notify their nominated supervisor; and
  2. seek the endorsement of their nominated supervisor if they are proposing to work within a laboratory or perform maintenance work.

(5) Typical scenarios which need to be managed in relation to lone working are:

  1. a member of ACU staff goes to a particular part of a campus to undertake work in a remote location. For example, maintenance work undertaken by Properties and Facilities; and
  2. a member of staff works outside normal working hours. For instance, working late in an office location.

(6) For these scenarios, and at any other time a member of staff finds themselves lone working on campus, the ‘Check-in Timer’ capability of the Safezone App shall be used.

(7) Once a member of staff reaches their lone working location, or they become aware they are lone working, they should touch the ‘Check-in Timer’ button in the app and set a timer. This process notifies the ACU National Security Centre of their ID and location. The timer shall be set for one hour and will count down to zero once activated. The Safezone App will also automatically finish their session if they leave the campus boundary.

(8) The Safezone App will send a warning push message at “5 minutes to go”, and staff can either reset the time, cancel the timer or check out. Limiting the timer to one hour ensures that staff are notifying security at regular intervals that they are okay. The Safezone App has a tracking function that updates their location to security at a low frequency.

(9) If the timer expires, the Safezone App will raise an alert, sharing the staff member’s location and ID with security, and security will undertake the necessary response actions.

Staff Working at Locations Away from a Campus

(10) The Safezone App only operates within the boundaries of ACU campuses. This section applies to lone working outside of campus boundaries.

(11) Where possible, lone working away from a campus shall be avoided or minimised. Whenever staff are working within a flexible arrangement agreement, offsite, or lone working, Nominated Supervisors or Managers should ensure the member of staff working alone can summon help if required by an appropriate means.

(12) The Manager or Nominated Supervisor shall ensure the wellbeing of the member of staff working alone, by agreeing upon a contact frequency which is documented within the Working from Home Agreement completed by the relevant staff member. The contact frequency will be appropriate to the nature of the lone work being undertaken and the availability of others able to assist in an emergency, such as family members.

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Section 4 - Lone Working by Contractors

(13) Lone working by contractors shall be managed in accordance with the WHSMS Contractor Management Procedure.

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Section 5 - Review

(14) This Procedure shall be reviewed if there are any changes to the Safezone App functions cited in the Procedure.

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Section 6 - Revision made to this Procedure

(15) The University may make changes to this Procedure from time to time to improve its effectiveness. If any staff member wishes to make any comments about this Procedure, they should forward their suggestions to People and Capability.

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Section 7 - Further Assistance

(16) Any staff member who requires assistance in understanding this Procedure should first consult their Nominated Supervisor or Manager who is responsible for applying the University’s WHSMS within their work area. Should further information or advice be required staff should visit Service Central.

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Section 8 - Associated Information

(17) For related legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines and any supporting resources please refer to the Associated Information tab.